It’s groundhog day, but spare a thought for the prairie dogs – the burrowing ground squirrels which are being poisoned and shot out of their habitats across North America.

The environmental group WildEarth Guardians wants prairie dogs to be protected, and has issued its second annual report card grading each federal agency and state that manages them. As last year, no-one is doing very well. Arizona, by reintroducing 74 black-tailed prairie dogs to a small southeast parcel in October, topped the league with a B, up from last year’s C+.

Some agencies have for years financed the poisoning of prairie dogs, while others at the same time are paying to help recover species (such as the black footed ferret) that depend on them, WildEarth Guardians’ desert and grassland projects director Lauren McCain told Associated Press.

The Denver Post asked prairie dog expert Con Slobodchikoff, of Northern Arizona University, to give them the lowdown on the critters, of which there are five types (Utah: classified as threatened; Mexican: endangered; black-tailed and white-tailed: status under review by the US Fish and Wildlife Service; and Gunnison’s):

[They have a] sophisticated vocabulary of at least 100 ‘words’ or yips, most describing predators. There are, however, still mysteries even for the prairie dog listener. Slobodchikoff doesn’t know why a prairie dog gets up on his hind legs and gives a ‘jump yip’. ‘Maybe he’s happy about something?’ he said.

Image: Black-tailed prairie dog, Wikimedia Commons